_19 April ‘09 Sunday Our time had run out in Nashville, so we decided to travel up to Kentucky and stay three nights at Mammoth Cave National Park. It was only a 90 mile run north, but we really wanted to see Mammoth Cave. After setting up camp, we noticed that all the campsites had a large pile of wood available to them. Driving in we noticed a lot of trees and branches down so we’re guessing that’s where all the wood has come from. In talking with the Ranger we found out that this last January they had a disastrous ice storm that took out all the trees. It took the Rangers 3 days to get the road cleared enough to get into the Information Center. Well we’re the glad recipients of this fine fire wood. It’s been a long time since we’ve had a fire and a long time since we’ve had the opportunity to roast marshmallows…they were so good… On one our our drives around the park we came upon one of the two ferries that cross the Green River.

_Unfortunately they can't take any RV's... This morning we got the early awakening of heavy rain on the top of the coach. We had planned to hike into one of the caves but when I checked the time, I almost changed my mind. I don’t mind an early morning alarm, but this was just plain nuts. I did get back to sleep and get a little more rest and when the time to get up did arrive, I was a little more agreeable. We knew that the cave tour that we wanted to take left at 10am, so about 9 we went down to buy our tickets. We wanted to take The Grand Tour. The Grand Tour covers 4 miles in just over 4 hours and reaches a depth of 280ft. We’ll have over 670 steps and have hills that will “stress you” as you climb over Mt. Everest (whatever that means).

_They tell us this is physically demanding hike (which we need…) and will expose us to gypsum encrusted halls, twisting canyons, narrow passages,

_Well we did find some of it to be demanding and physical, but overall it was a great day for a hike (especially underground…). It would have been nice to have come out and find the sun shining, but that didn’t happen. Fact is, we had to run for the car. Thank God we had taken it, because this morning we had debated whether or not too because we are only camped about a ½ mile away and thought we could handle the walk back without any problem. Over 10,000 years ago, the Paleo-Indians we hunting in this area along the Green River and most likely used the Mammoth Caves for shelter. They think the next to arrive were the Late Archaic and Early woodland Indians from 4 to 2,000 years ago. Around 1816 the caves became a tourist interest. The guides through the caves were the enslaved people from the owners of the land holding the caves. With over 365 miles of surveyed passageways, the Mammoth Cave is over twice as long as any know cave. The Geologists think there could be 600 miles of yet undiscovered passageways to come. Well no fire in the pit tonight. It’s still buried in about 2 inches of rain and we’re expecting more tonight sometime. By the way, this camp ground only offers “no hook-up sites so we’re (I hate to use this term…) DRY CAMPING…